Court case W137 2328811-1 – Court Ruling (Austria, 2026)

In 2008, a district court issued a payment order against the data subject for an unpaid lawyer’s fee. The payment order became final and enforceable in June 2008, but the data subject never paid the debt. After the judgement, the data subject changed her surname, moved to Germany and did not inform the lawyer (the controller) about these changes. The controller attempted to recover the unpaid legal fee from the data subject. He discovered the data subject’s new address and contacted her, requesting the outstanding payment. The data subject asked the controller where it got her address from, arguing that failing to provide this information would violate Article 14 GDPR. The controller responded that he had obtained the address in the course of his professional activity and could not disclose details due to his duty of professional secrecy. On the same day, the data subject filed a complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority (DSB). She alleged violations of Article 14(2)(f) GDPR, the principles of processing under Article 5(1)(b) GDPR, the lawfulness requirement under Article 6 GDPR, and her right to erasure under Article 17 GDPR. The data subject claimed she would not pay until these procedures were concluded. The DSB refused to deal with the complaint under Article 57(4) GDPR as it considered the complaint unfounded and abusive because it served only to delay or obstruct the enforcement of the debt. The data subject appealed this decision to the court. First, the court confirmed that supervisory authorities may refuse to act on complaints that are manifestly unfounded or abusive under Article 57(4) GDPR. It referred to the case law of the CJEU that clarifies that the concept of an “application” in Article 57(4) GDPR also covers complaints under Article 77 GDPR. Second, the court assessed whether the complaint pursued a legitimate data protection objective. It found that the data subject used the complaint primarily to delay or prevent the enforcement of